Total pages in book: 120
Estimated words: 113406 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 567(@200wpm)___ 454(@250wpm)___ 378(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 113406 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 567(@200wpm)___ 454(@250wpm)___ 378(@300wpm)
“Jobs?” Bracken echoed. Well, that confirmed his suspicions that the hyena was a lone shifter. Shifters didn’t do jobs; they had roles and followed orders. But lone shifters often provided services, including assassinations. “What kind of jobs do you do?”
The hyena clamped his mouth closed, as if remembering he’d meant to stay silent, but then he sighed. “I specialize in retrieval.”
“And what exactly is it you retrieve?”
“Mostly assets like cars, cash, or other possessions that people want returned to them. I’ve been doing it five years now.”
“Retrieval is how you earn money and protection?”
“Yeah.”
“And you were hired to retrieve Madisyn.” Bracken narrowed his eyes. “By who?”
The male licked his lips. “Look, I have no loyalty to the person who hired me. I’ll tell you what I know . . . if you give me some incentive like, oh, I don’t know, the promise to free me. Otherwise, I’ll take this shit to my grave.” And now the hyena looked satisfied.
His wolf peeled back his upper lip. “Free you?”
“Wouldn’t you demand the same thing in my position? I swear, I’ll tell you everything I know, but not for anything less than my freedom.”
“And why would I give it to you? If I let you go after what you did to my mate, what kind of message does that send to the outside world?”
“I didn’t hurt her.”
A growl rumbled in Bracken’s chest. “I saw the rake marks along her sides. I cleaned them. Washed away the blood. Stroked over the ugly bruises. And the whole time, I kept thinking . . . I’m going to kill that motherfucker.”
Sweat now trickling down his face, the hyena said, “I was defending myself. That cat . . . I don’t even know what she is, never seen anything like her before, but she’s a craz—”
“Careful,” clipped Bracken. “Let’s look at the facts. You carjacked my mate. Pulled a loaded gun on her. Tried to force her to go somewhere she didn’t want to go. Then you clawed her. Struck her. Made her bleed. And then—”
“I didn’t know she was your mate!”
“I don’t believe you.” The words were whisper-soft, but they carried a wealth of menace. “It’s no coincidence that you struck on the day I wasn’t with her. My guess is that your employer either told you about her patterns or you yourself have been watching her. You saw her alone, and you pounced. Only it didn’t work.” Bracken took a slow step forward. “You knew she was mine. You didn’t care. In fact, you probably used that fact to bargain for more money.”
The hyena’s eyes flickered, and Bracken knew he was right.
Bastard. “You’re not leaving this shed alive. Nor will you be leaving it in one piece. Whether or not you’re already dead when I’m slicing you into pieces depends entirely on how talkative you choose to be.”
Jaw hardening, the male lifted his chin in challenge.
Bracken grinned. “Now you’re just daring me to do my worst.” The hyena flinched as Bracken’s claws sliced out. “Someone gag him. We can’t have the pups hearing him scream.”
Ignoring the male’s struggle, Eli quickly and deftly gagged him with an old rag.
Chest heaving, face reddening, heart pounding, the hyena stared at Bracken with eyes that finally showed a glint of true fear. His inner wolf relished the sight of it.
Bracken took slow steps toward the bastard. “When you’re ready to talk, all you have to do is blink hard three times. Until you do, I’m going to introduce you to the kind of pain you didn’t know existed.”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
On warm nights such as this, Madisyn often slept on a blanket in her backyard. She liked watching the sunlight drain from the sky and the shadows thicken, liked being part of the relaxing quiet that often descended. As she lay on a blanket on the grass near Bracken’s lodge, she wasn’t quite so relaxed. The forest was far from quiet at night. Crickets chirped, owls screeched, tree frogs croaked, and a damn fox kept screaming its ass off, sounding like a woman getting slaughtered. And if that bat swooped down again, she was going to throw her shoe at it.
However, she did like looking up at the night sky—or what she could see of it through the breaks in the tall shadowed trees. Relatively cloudless, it was currently more of a deep violet than black. It also had very faint traces of blue and gold around the edges. All in all, it was beautiful to look at.
A light breeze whispered over her skin, lifting her hair, slipping through the grass, fluttering the leaves, and gently rocking the tree branches. It brought with it the scents of rich earth, moss, tree sap, and pine needles. She closed her eyes and—
A twig snapped in the distance. She stilled, reaching out with her enhanced senses. Something was padding through the woods, heading her way. She didn’t need to guess who it was. Only a minute ago, a howl had split the air. She’d known instinctively that it was Bracken’s wolf. Sensed that he was calling to her, telling her he was coming home.